


5 Times The Squip Squad Couldn't See The Problem + 1 Time They Realize They Were The Problem

by skinnysteeb



Category: Be More Chill - Iconis/Tracz
Genre: 5 Times, 5+1 Things, Character Development, Christine is an angel, Established Relationship, M/M, Post-Squip, She's the best bean, and made them feel unsafe at school, and that needed to be addressed, boyf riends — Freeform, but he was a dick to them, like I love Rich to death, squip squad, that's right michael and jeremy have their shit together for once, the bullies actaully apologize in this
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-25
Updated: 2017-08-25
Packaged: 2018-12-19 14:36:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,380
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11899794
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/skinnysteeb/pseuds/skinnysteeb
Summary: Jeremy and Michael aren’t adjusting to being friends with their past bullies as easily as they thought they would.(I love the Squip Squad a lot, don’t take this as me hating on the other characters. Cause Rich is easily my second favorite character and honestly I love Jenna.  Also Jake is an absolute bean. However I feel like people forget that these people hurt the boyf riends quite a bit, or excuse the behavior due to their love of the characters. So idk I’m just trying to show their development in this piece.)





	5 Times The Squip Squad Couldn't See The Problem + 1 Time They Realize They Were The Problem

**Author's Note:**

> Warning: I have never seen the Musical, and as there is very little record of a lot of the dialogue, I may be misinformed or missing information. If this happens please feel free to tell me so in the comments, I’m always after any information I can get my hands on (even though I’m hoping to see the musical when it opens in New Jersey).   
>  Also I’m so sorry for all the mistakes that are going to be in this, I’m shit at grammar and don’t have a beta reader. Hope you like my attempts at writing!
> 
> OH! Also I’m really bad at writing in speech impediments and am wayyy too afraid of messing it up (I’m nervous enough writing in Jeremy’s anxious stutter), but reminder that Rich has a lisp!
> 
> See end for more notes

I.

The first time it happens is about a month after everyone returns from the ‘squipcident.’ The majority of the group is hanging around the halls when Rich notices Jeremy approaching. He quickly bounds over to greet him yelling,  
“Hey Tall Ass!” Before slapping him on the back with a giant grin on his face. Instead of saying anything back however, Jeremy flinches and almost knocks himself into the lockers that sit along the wall. He quickly recovers flashing Rich a small anxious smile. But Rich is already frowning at him, his brow scrunched up in confusion.   
“You ok dude?” He asks, obviously concerned.   
“Y-yeah, e-everything’s great.” Jeremy stammers out in response. Rich doesn’t looked convinced and moves to ask again, but Jeremy cuts him off.  
“Oh look th-there’s Michael. I g-gotta go! W-we have a p-project we have to work on. I’ll see you l-later Rich!” And before Rich can say another word Jeremy’s taking off down the hallway. His shoulder’s hunched and no Michael in sight.  
He turns back to the rest of the group only to be met with a lot of equally confused looks.   
“Did I do something wrong?” Rich asks hesitantly.   
“I don’t think so…” Brooke says letting the statement trail off.   
“I mean you didn’t do anything out of the usual.” Chloe continues. There’s a few moments of silence before Christine, the only one not looking unsure, pipes up,   
“You guys don’t see what’s wrong here?” The others all turn to her shaking their heads, and she just sighs. “I’m sure you guys will figure it out at some point.” Rich opens his mouth to ask what she means by that, but is cut off by the bell, and the group quickly disperses to get to class. 

II.

The next time it happens is a few days later. The Squip Squad is hanging around before school starts like usual. When the first bell rings and they all have to go their separate ways. Michael reaches forward to give Jeremy a quick peck on the lips before he leaves for class, when Rich yells,  
“Gayyyyyyyyy,” He’s got an affectionate smile on his face, and his own hand in Jake’s grip, but the other two still freeze. After a moment Michael awkwardly takes a step back, while Jeremy mumbles out something that sounds like sorry, as his face turns red. Then without looking back they head off in their separate directions, both boys hunched over with hands shoved in their pockets.  
The group turns to look at one another, once again confused by their reactions. After a moment they all turn to Christine who just sighs and starts heading off to her own class.   
She couldn’t understand how everyone was being so oblivious. 

III.

Nothing really strange had happened in a few days, but now that they were looking for it, the Squip Squad noticed all the little ways Michael and Jeremy were acting weird.  
How Jeremy would flinch when any of the guys would knock up against him.   
Or how Michael would put his headphones on and close into himself when the others mocked his taste in music, even jokingly.   
All the awkward cringes and aborted motions that the two would make at seemingly random things.   
The group was all around confused, minus Christine, who was still refusing to tell the others what was going on, and they were growing really concerned. What had their friends acting scared like this? Was someone giving them a hard time? Was something wrong at home?   
They all had different ideas on how to help too, but none of them seemed to be working. Jake thought they should be spending as much time around the two as possible, in case someone was giving them a hard time. But that just caused them to notice how often the boys would flinch in their presence. Jenna thought the solution was to keep her ear to the ground in case she missed something in the rumor mill. But she basically was the rumor mill and no one knew anything. And Brooke thought they needed a group hug. Which actually didn’t go over to badly, even if Michael and Jeremy were slightly confused by the sudden show of affection.   
Basically no one knew how to handle the situation.

IV.

There hadn’t been any major incidents for a few weeks, when another one struck. Jeremy and Michael were teasing Rich for a hilarious incident that happened when they were hanging out over the weekend.   
Rich had been getting really into Apocalypse of the Damned and had been on his feet moving around while cursing out the hoards of Zombies. Which had caused him to trip over a stray wire and crash into a coffee table filled with snacks. The ending result was a slightly bruised Rich that was covered in Cheetos and pretzels, while the other two laughed their asses off.   
As they were teasing him, Jake and Jenna joined them at the lunch table and wanted to know what happened. So naturally the boys launch into the epic tale with Rich trying to cover their mouths, and shouting over them,  
“Noooooooo, don’t tell Jake about my failureeeee.” Jeremy just laughed harder replying easily,  
“Oh please this is no worse than the time you were drinking soda and laughed so hard it shot out your nose and all over your sandwich.” Rich made a slightly horrified face as Jake yelled,  
“What!” Laughing hysterically, it was obvious he had never heard that story before. With a deadpan face Rich turns to Jeremy and says,  
“You’re dead Heere.” Instead of laughing, or coming up with a retort, Jeremy looks away and quickly reaches out to grip Michael’s hand. Picking up on the change in demeanour instantly Michael turns to Jeremy, and with false panic, says,  
“Shit Jeremy, we gotta head to Mr. Reyes’ room. Didn’t he need us for something.” His face made it clear that he was concerned with something, but it was obviously not whatever Mr. Reyes had in store for them. Yet Jeremy still replied with a stuttered out,  
“Y-y-yeah you’re right.” Before the pair was out the door, leaving behind most of their lunch. Jake shared a look with Jenna and Rich, as the rest of the crew came to join their table.  
“Where did Michael and Jeremy go?” Chloe asked, noticing the lunches that had been promptly abandoned by the two boys.   
“I don’t know,” Sighed Jake, “They ran off again… It’s the first really odd display from them in a while.” The rest of the group grew pensive, all of them stuck on what could be wrong with the boys. Well except for Christine, who just grimaced at everyone’s misery. She wanted to tell them what she figured the problem was, but thought it better the group work it out for themselves.   
Luckily it wouldn’t take too much longer for the group to figure everything out. 

V.

The Squip Squad was hanging out in the hallway before class when everything came to a head. The group was listening to Chloe tell some story about how Dustin Kropp tried to ask her out, when Brooke speaks up making comment on how cute Dustin is.  
Chloe quickly turns to Brooke saying,  
“Brooke! I think you mean gross.” Her tone is sharp and causes Brooke to flinch, but she just nods used to the corrections at this point. The whole interaction causes Jeremy to frown and interrupt,  
“Chloe you really have to lay off correcting Brooke like that, she can have her own opinions…” He trails off almost unsure where the split second of confidence comes from. Chloe looks a little shocked, but Brooke is beaming at him. The others stare for a split before vocally agreeing.  
“I mean you could stand to be a little nice to her Chlo,” Jake adds in.  
“Dude, Jeremy’s right. It sucks to be put down like that by your best friend.” Michael tacts on, although Jeremy frowns at his sentence and pulls his boyfriend into a quick side hug. Still not forgiving himself fully for what he put Michael through with the squip.   
“Brooke isn’t bothered by it. Right Brookey?” Chloe turns to Brooke while she speaks only to find her best friend fidgeting. “Wait Brooke does it really bother you?”  
“I-I mean yeah a bit. It’s not the best feeling to always be told you’re wrong.” Chloe looks upset by her admission.  
“You should’ve said something sooner, I would’ve tried to stop.”   
“I just didn’t want you to hate me.” Brooke admits quietly.  
“I could never hate you Brooke, I love you okay?” Brooke looks startled and little hopeful at the admission, but the two settle back in and the gang continues to tell the story. When the bell rings they all start to disperse and Jake playfully hip checks Michael on his way by. Only Michael flinches so hard that he stumbles into Jeremy who grabs onto his arm to balance him. Jake turns around to apologize but Michael won’t meet his eyes and looks a little pale. So Jeremy grabs his hand and pulls him off towards their next class. The others, who had all stopped to watch the scene, frown in concern before Brooke gasps loudly.  
“Guys I think I know what’s wrong.” Her voice is concerned and upset despite finally figuring out the problem. “I mean we all treated them pretty bad before the squip happened. I can’t imagine it’s easy to be friends with us after all that…” The others sit in silence before Christine finally whooped.  
“Thank gosh you guys figured it out. I thought I was going to have to tell you myself.” The others all look around, shocked at the realization.  
“Did we really treat them that badly?” Jenna whispered. Everyone tried to think back before the ‘squipcident’ happened, but it seemed so long ago. Eventually Christine broke the silence again,  
“Yeah you guys kind of did. Rich you used to torment them all the time, and wrote Boyf Riends on their backpacks. Jake you used to call Jeremy a freak, and while you didn’t go out of your way to hurt them, you never tried to stop Rich from doing it. And you three not only spread the rumors started about them, but would verbally ridicule them if they were nearby when you were gossiping.”   
The Squip Squad fell silent, everyone looking horribly guilty as they recalled their previous actions.   
“Guys, how are we going to make this up to them?” Rich asked, for once his voice and face were devoid of humor.   
“Well first we’re all going to go to class,” Christine said, “And after school you guys can come up with how you’re going to apologize.”

\+ 1

Jeremy and Michael were busy making out in Michael’s basement when a knock on the door interrupted them. They barely had time to pull apart before Jake, Rich, Jenna, Chloe, and Brooke are entering.  
“Hey guys, what are you all doing here?” Michael asked. The new arrivals just stayed bunched together and kept fidgeting where they stood. “I mean not that we’re not happy to see you. Just wasn’t expecting almost everyone to stop by. Did we miss a group text or something?” Michael continued feeling awkward at everyone’s silence. Finally Chloe broke it when she stepped forward and shoved two slushies at Michael and Jeremy.  
“Ok g-guys seriously what’s up? Bribing us with slushies, it must be serious.” Jeremy spoke up, sitting up a bit from where he had been curled up against Michael’s side. The group continued to stay quiet until Brooke eventually broke the silence,  
“Oh god guys we’re just so sorry. We didn’t realize how much we must’ve put you through before the whole squip thing happened.” Michael and Jeremy fell silent, a little shocked that this was what their sullen silence was about. But Brooke speaking up seemed to have given the others their opening.  
“Yeah guys I used to go out of my way to be an ass to you, especially you Jeremy. Plus I mean the whole squip thing was totally my fault, I mean I talked you into getting one.” Rich spoke up next, closely followed by Jake,  
“I used to just watch Rich push you guys around too, I mean he’s my friend so I pushed it out of mind, but I could’ve stopped it. Plus I called you guys losers just like everyone else and never stopped to think how that had to be affecting you.”   
“And I mean I was the one who spread all the shit people said about you. If someone didn’t know that the popular kids didn’t like you, they sure did after I spread it around.” Jenna spoke up apologizing next.  
“So yeah, we’re just all really sorry for being assholes in general, and you guys just dropped it and became our friends like it was nothing. Like we hadn’t been making your lives hell for all of highschool.” Chloe was the last to speak up, and the room fell back into silence afterwards. It was a little while before Jeremy spoke up again,  
“Guys it’s fine real-”  
“No they’re right Jere-bear,” Michael cut him off, “What they did wasn’t ok. It made school hard for us, and our anxiety worse. We called school a battle zone because we didn’t feel safe there.” The others stared at the floor, guilt obvious on their face. “All that said I’ve already forgiven you, I forgave you all a while ago actually. I know you’re not bad people and you’re not bullies anymore. So thanks for the apology it means a lot, but you’ve already been forgiven.”   
“Damn Micah, how am I supposed to follow that. Ditto I guess guys.” Everyone laughs, and just like that the tension is broken. Soon Jeremy is cuddled back into Michael’s side, and the group settles into a Mario Kart tournament.  
Everything basically goes back to normal after that. The boyfs still flinch sometimes or grow anxious at seemingly random moments, but now their friends know to pull them into a hug apologizing, or even to just leave them alone for a little while if that’s what they need. All in all the squip squad had never been stronger.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much for reading! I hope you like it and sorry my writing is so bad, I'm horribly out of practice.
> 
> If you want to come and scream about Be More Chill with me my BMC side blog is boyf-riends-in-the-bathroom.
> 
> My main blog is sweet-smaurent which is mostly Captive Prince stuff, but you're welcome to reach out to me on there too!
> 
> ~ Also make sure to leave kudos and a comment on this fic ~ They give me life as a writer ~


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